Love Me Then Destroy Me
She woke up in a billionaire's arms in a penthouse with a view of the Seine. She was wearing a ring she didn't remember saying yes i do to
When Lana Cruz wakes up after a terrible accident, the only person there is Adrian Black, the powerful CEO who says she is his wife. His touch is familiar, and his voice is strong but all of my memories of him are gone.
They look like the perfect couple to everyone but this is the revenge Adrian has been waiting years for. Lana broke his heart once, and now he plans to make her fall in love with him again, only to break her heart when she is most vulnerable.
But Paris is a city full of life and danger. Rooftop parties under the sparkling Eiffel Tower, moonlit walks along the Seine, and sparkling galleries set the stage for love, lies, and secrets that could ruin both of them.
As they fall in love, the line between revenge and desire gets blurry. Lana and Adrian must choose between letting the past take over their lives or giving in to a love that is strong enough to heal even the worst wounds.
A storm of passion, betrayal, and redemption in the middle of modern Paris.
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Chapter 8
Lana's Point of View
The hot water hit my shoulders, which were soft and warm, but my body still shook like I was outside in the cold rain. I closed my eyes and let the steam cover my face. If I stayed here long enough, I might wake up in a different place. Somewhere that made sense. Somewhere that didn't have a man who said he was my husband watching me like he was afraid to blink.
I pulled my fingers through my wet hair and let out a slow breath. Lana, just breathe...
The water got louder. My heart raced faster too.
I raised my hand to rub my forehead, and then I stopped.
There was something dark on my wrist.
A mark.
A form.
Not dirt.
Not a shadow.
Not something that could be cleaned off.
A tattoo.
There is a small, neat, sharp black mark just below the thin skin on my wrist. A small shape that looks like a crescent with a line through it.
I opened my mouth. I couldn't breathe.
"No... no... no..."
My voice broke. The water went everywhere because my hand shook so hard.
I put my wrist close to my face. I blinked quickly, thinking my eyes were playing tricks on me, but the mark stayed there-dark, clear, and real.
For real.
A tattoo.
On me.
Something cold crawled up my back.
I never liked getting tattoos.
I never wanted one.
I told the nurse that yesterday.
What was it doing there?
My stomach dropped so quickly that my knees gave way. I leaned against the wall, and my wet fingers slid over the tile.
"What is this?" I whispered, and my voice shook.
"What's this? What's this?"
Then the fear hit me all at once, hard and fast-
"NO!"
Without warning, the scream came out of me. A sound that is rough and broken.
The kind that happens when your body tells you something that your mind can't figure out.
The door to the bathroom slammed open.
"Lana!" Adrian's voice came before his body did.
He didn't seem mad.
He didn't seem angry.
He looked really scared.
He stepped into the steam and asked, "What happened?"
I fell back, clutching my wrist to my chest as if it were a wound.
"Get back!" I yelled.
His hands slowly went up, which meant he wasn't getting closer. His chest rose and fell quickly. "What's wrong?"
My whole arm shook. I raised my wrist, and water ran down it.
"WHAT IS THIS?"
His eyes dropped to it, and something in his face changed.
A little thing.
Fast.
Not very visible.
But I did see it.
Like... dread.
I took one more step back.
He said softly, "Lana, you've seen it before."
"No," I said, shaking my head hard. "No, no, no, I would never do this."
He took a deep breath.
"You did."
My heart was beating so hard it hurt.
He said softly, "You got it on a weekend trip."
"What trip on the weekend?" My voice broke again.
He gulped. "Two years ago."
"But I don't recall!"
He said, "That's not your fault." "I know."
"I don't believe you."
The room was quiet, and the air was thick and wet like steam.
He looked at me the same way he did when I woke up yesterday, like I was a glass cup falling off a shelf. His fingers curled a little, like he wanted to run to me but stopped himself.
He said, "That was your idea." "You said the sign meant a promise."
"What promise?"
"You didn't tell me."
I couldn't breathe.
My head buzzed again. The lights above me looked like they were moving. My skin felt too tight all over my body.
Everything was off.
I whispered, "That's not my wrist." "That's not my life." Someone else, not me, did all of this.
"Lana..."
His voice got softer. Not hard enough. The kind of soft that hides something sharp.
"I don't know you," I said. "I don't know this house." I don't know this-this mark.
A flash cut through my mind all of a sudden.
Fast.
Soft.
Like warm light coming through curtains.
My hand, this same wrist, was resting on a man's shoulder.
My fingers curled around the back of his neck.
My voice is laughing.
His lips brushing against my tattoo-
I gasped and let go of my wrist. The flash came and went in a flash, leaving me empty and dizzy.
Adrian stepped forward, and his eyes filled with fear. "Did you think of something?"
"No," I lied quickly and sharply.
His eyebrows came together. "Lana-"
"I SAID NO!"
When I pushed past him, water splashed all over the place. He didn't try to stop me. He might have been afraid to touch me. Or maybe he knew I would break if he did.
With shaky hands, I grabbed a towel and wrapped it around myself. My skin was still hot from the shower, but I was cold all the way through.
He stood by the door and watched every little thing I did.
He said softly, "I'm here to help you."
My chest felt tight.
He sounded so sure of himself.
Too sure.
I whispered, "How can I trust you when every new thing I find makes me feel like I'm living someone else's life?"
He closed his eyes for a second, as if my words hurt.
He opened them again after that.
Face calm.
Be quiet.
Full control.
"Let me explain everything at your own pace," he said. "No stress." No fear.
But there was fear.
It went around my ribs.
It was in the air between us.
It hurt in the little tattoo on my wrist.
I didn't say anything else as I left the bathroom.
At first, he didn't follow.
But then I heard him walk-slowly, heavily, and carefully.
"Lana," he said.
I kept walking.
He tried again.
"Please."
The way he said "please" made me stop for a second.
One second.
But I didn't look back.
I opened the door to the bedroom and stood there, dripping water on the floor, breathing hard, and trying to think and figure things out.
He walked into the doorway behind me and stopped a few feet away.
He said, "You don't have to be afraid of me."
I touched the tattoo with my fingers again.
I said in a low voice, "I'm scared of myself."
The air stopped moving.
His voice got lower and steadier.
"You are safe here."
I slowly turned my head so that I could see his eyes.
I asked, "So why do I feel like everything in this house is hiding something?"
He took a deep breath.
He opened his mouth to say something-
But the loud, sharp ring of a phone broke the silence in the room.
Not his phone.
Not mine.
Somewhere else in the house.
He stopped moving.
And for the first time since I met him, I could see fear in his eyes.
Fear that is real.
He quickly turned towards the sound.
Too quickly.
I took one slow step back, holding my wrist, while he whispered in my ear:
"No... not now..."
His voice wasn't for me.
But I heard every word.
And I knew that the tattoo wasn't the truth I was afraid of.
It was the guy who was running to answer the phone.
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8.6
It was my birthday, but instead of celebrating, I was bleeding on the floor of my own bedroom. My sister Serena had just smashed a champagne bottle over my legs, her eyes filled with a dark madness because our father allowed me to wear the family diamonds.
To escape her, I bolted into a pitch-black guest suite, only to be grabbed by a man who felt like a wall of solid muscle. He was drugged, unstable, and pinned me against the wall, his teeth sinking into my neck in a primal claim that left a permanent mark.
I managed to flee, but the nightmare was just beginning. My father didn't care about my injuries; he only cared that I had "insulted" the man in that room—Delos French, the most powerful CEO in New York. He threatened to stop paying for my mother’s critical care facility unless I went to Delos and begged for his forgiveness.
My brother Julian was even worse, intentionally pouring scalding coffee over my bandaged wounds just to see me flinch. They forced me into a revealing gold dress, treating me like a high-priced commodity to be sold to the highest bidder to save their failing company.
I didn't understand how the people who were supposed to love me could be more predatory than the monster in the dark. I had spent my life fixing their scandals, yet they were ready to throw me to the wolves the moment I became useful as a pawn.
But when I stood before Delos French at his gala, he didn't see a trophy. He recognized my scent, my touch, and the fire in my eyes. He trapped me in his private lounge, kneeling to clean the blood from my injured feet.
"Marry me," he whispered, his voice a low, terrifying growl. "And I will give you the power to burn your family to the ground."
I looked into the eyes of the man who had hunted me and realized he was the only one offering me a weapon to destroy the people who had broken me.
"Okay," I whispered.
8.2
My wedding to Ethan Reed was just weeks away.
After seven years, I was certain of our perfect future.
Then, Ethan claimed "selective amnesia" from a head injury, forgetting only me.
I tried to make him remember, until I overheard his video call.
"Total genius move," he boasted to friends.
His amnesia was a fake "hall pass" to pursue influencer Chloe Vance before our wedding.
Heartbroken, I feigned belief.
I endured his open flirting with Chloe and their taunting selfies.
He mocked my distress, prioritizing Chloe's fake emergency.
After an accident he caused, he abandoned me, injured, choosing to send Chloe to the hospital first.
He even tried to cut me off financially.
How could my fiancé be this cruel, calculating monster?
His betrayal poisoned every memory.
I felt like a fool for trusting such boundless cruelty.
His audacity left me reeling.
But I wouldn’t be his victim.
Instead of breaking, a cold plan formed.
I would shed my identity, become Olivia Carter.
I would disappear, leaving him, my past, and his engagement ring behind forever, claiming my freedom.
7.9
Valerie Ashford, a girl who had just turned twenty-one, was introduced by her father to his business associates at a grand party, where she met a frightening, cold-blooded man.
That man was none other than her father's business partner, the CEO of a major corporation. He was taken with Valerie and had wanted her from the moment he first laid eyes on her.
For Rovano Morvane, whatever he desired was absolute and he had to have it, even by the worst means possible.
That night Valerie vanished without a trace and Rovano became the prime suspect, yet the Ashford family could not prove their allegations.
"P-please, I don't want to die, sir..." Valerie whispered so softly that Rovano had to bend down even lower.
"Didn't you just say you didn't care whether you were kidnapped or not? So shut your mouth." Rovano ordered.
Cold, Valerie felt the other side of the folding knife pressed against her cheek.
Rovano was going to mark Valerie.
It felt like something was missing if Rovano didn't take out his psychopathic urges on someone.
And this time, for the first time, he wanted a girl: Valerie Ashford.
Would Valerie's life end here?
7.5
On her eighteenth birthday, Aria Hale finally feels her wolf stir... just in time to attend the mating ceremony where the Moon Goddess will reveal her destined mate. She has spent her whole life as the pack's weakest link – her wolf sealed, her power mocked, her future uncertain. But one touch will change everything. When her eyes meet those of Liam Blackwood, the cruel, golden future Alpha of Nightfall Pack, the bond snaps into place. He is her fated mate. Her miracle. Her salvation. And he rejects her on the spot. Humiliated, heartbroken, and banished, Aria thinks her story ends there... until a black car stops on the edge of the territory and the man inside offers her a choice. Damien Blackwood. Liam's older brother. Cold. Untouchable. A billionaire who left the pack years ago-and the only wolf Liam has ever feared. "Come with me," Damien says. "I'll give you a home, protection... and a chance to become strong enough that they will all kneel. "Under his roof, Aria's "weak" wolf begins to awaken. Dark secrets unravel. And the truth emerges: she is not just any wolf. She is a hidden Omega Queen. When danger threatens the pack that rejected her, Liam comes crawling back, begging for a second chance. But Aria is no longer the powerless girl he threw away. She must choose: the mate who broke her, or the brother who rebuilt her-and the throne the Moon Goddess always meant for her to claim.
7.7
Ethan loved her with empty pockets and a full heart.
He worked until his hands bled. Skipped meals. Gave her everything he had.
On Valentine's Day, he planned to give her the one gift he could never afford.
Instead, he caught her in another man's arms.
His brother's arms.
They laughed at him.
They told him love without money was worthless.
They threw him away like trash.
That same night, his phone rang.
And the world flipped.
One hundred million dollars appeared in his account.
A powerful family came looking for their lost heir.
And the poor boy nobody wanted became the man nobody could touch.
Now the woman who left him wants him back.
The family that crushed him wants forgiveness.
But Ethan is done begging.
Done loving with nothing.
This time, he decides who deserves him.
9.7
Amara Blackwell only wanted to survive.
She had lived her whole life in shadows an unwanted servant, bullied, beaten, and ignored.
She had learned one truth: the world didn't care for the weak.
She never meant to cross into the Sunfang Clan's border... but hunger doesn't care about territory lines.
Captured as a trespasser, thrown into the dungeon, treated as nothing more than a filthy outsider.
Amara becomes the clan's newest servant, sentenced to repay her "crime" through labor.
Invisible. Powerless. Unwanted.
Until jealousy paints a target on her back.
Framed for an offense punishable by death, Amara is dragged before the court - bruised, terrified, and surrounded by wolves who want her gone.
The crowd demands blood.
The elders demand punishment.
And she waits for the blade.
Then the Alpha King arrives.
Kael Duskbane
Cold. Feared. Unbreakable.
He steps forward to judge her... and the moment his eyes land on her, something ancient and forbidden stirs inside him.
A scent.
A pull.
A truth he should never have felt.
His wolf whispers one word that changes everything:
Mate.
The girl kneeling in the dirt
the servant, the trespasser, the nobody is the one woman his kingdom will never accept.
The one woman whose hidden bloodline could set the entire empire on fire.
And the one woman every enemy wants dead...
And the one Kael Duskbane will defy fate, tradition, and every rival clan to protect.